


Ranunculus and Rosebuds

by PjCole



Series: Floriography [3]
Category: Youtube RPF
Genre: First Date, Fluff, M/M, and also super smitten, flower shop!au, mark being a dumb nerd
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 10:22:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7841095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PjCole/pseuds/PjCole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the language of flowers, a bouquet of ranunculus says, "I am dazzled by your charms."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ranunculus and Rosebuds

**Author's Note:**

> I am so sorry this took so long to get out. School is starting soon and I've been busy getting ready for that! I hope you all enjoy this super dumb Mark POV chapter.

Mark was just going naked. That was the only viable option as this point and he had long past disregarded any problems with that plan. Sure it’d probably scare Jack off and of course it would likely get him in jail for public indecency. Not to mention it was already October and Ohio wasn't really known for warm autumn evenings. However, the inevitability of frozen nipples and prison was delightful compared to the idea of wearing anything in his fashion disaster closet. 

How he’d managed to live twenty long years without purchasing clothing acceptable of being seen by other humans was beyond him. The T-shirts had seemed funny at the store, but now he wanted to burn it all to the ground. 

While Mark lay groaning at the unkind universe in nothing but a pair of old Spider-Man boxers (which really helped the situation), his phone chirped next to him. He hoped it was Wade texting him back to let him know he'd stolen half of Mark’s wardrobe and would be returning it all few minutes. Or at least requesting help with some emergency that would give Mark a good enough reason to cancel the date. 

JACK :D at 3:47PM  
‘Hey! I have to turn a homework assignment before 7 tonight, so I might be 5ish min late tonight. I don’t think I will be but I just wanted to warn u so u don;t think i’m standing you up ;)

Mark smiled and then immediately grimaced and flopped back down on the bed with a tantrum-esque groan. He was caught between being absolutely giddy and wanting to fling himself out his bedroom window. On the one hand, this was the first time he’d heard from Jack since the twenty minutes they’d texted this morning. Jack had sent him a picture of a distressingly fat cat lying seductively with only the caption: ‘tonite’. Mark of course send back the ugliest picture he found after googling ‘perv face’, thus instigating a morning meme war that only ended when Jack surrendered so he could attending his English class without choking on laughter. 

On the other hand, Mark was going to go on a date with him in 3 hours and owned no clothing. 

Still, he couldn’t bring himself to back out, so he lifted the phone above his face and responded. 

Me at 3:50PM  
‘No prob! I live right above the store, so you won’t leave me waiting too long’

Instead of sitting up, Mark stared up at his phone and scrolled through their old texts. Mark had only sent Jack the first message on Tuesday and they’d already racked up 300+ sent messages. Most of the conversations revolved around weird things Jack’s new fish did, dumb stuff Mark found on the Internet and shamelessly dorky flirting. It felt like they were thirteen and Mark ate up every second of it. Really he shouldn’t be so worried about tonight, he felt he already half knew everything about Jack. Honestly he could go naked and the Irishman would likely just laugh and thank him for at least putting on a pair of underwear. 

The phone buzzed again and Mark gracefully spazzed out and dropped the phone flat on his nose. Sitting back up, he looked down at the messages and rubbed at his now tender sinuses. 

JACK :D at 4:03PM  
‘Good! I’ll see u in a few hours! Try not to get too excited!

Me at 4:04PM  
‘I shiver with antici….’

Me at 4:04PM  
‘...pation’

JACK :D at 4:05PM  
‘You huge nerd !!!’

Mark set the phone down with a smile. He gave another look over towards his closet and decided trying to come up with anything this far in advance was going to get him nowhere but anxious. Standing up, he grabbed the grey towel hung over the end of his bed and headed towards the shower. 

XXX

It was 6:52 and Mark was standing out front his little shop looping between flattening his shirt down and attempting to let the solitaire game he had downloaded on his phone distracted him. He'd managed to play about two hours of an old Assassin’s Creed game after his shower before beginning the dressing challenge again. Once that was done he’d sat reading through their old texts again until 6:50, which was the earliest he would let his jittery self head outside. 

Marzia, the girl that worked weekday afternoons to cover for Mark during his classes, closed shop an hour ago, but Mark still felt like someone was watching him through the full glass wall that was the front of “Flower Pots”. He knew the feeling was exclusively because of the twenty five tons of nerves currently flowing through his veins. Still he couldn’t stop from constantly looking over his shoulder or around at the few people walking along the sidewalk. 

Because of his own misplaced paranoia, the clock ticked past 7 without his notice. As if planned, Jack rounded the corner, opposite the one Mark was staring down, almost exactly five minutes past. 

“Mark!” 

Spinning around with a very manly hop and yelp, Mark stared wide eyed at a near hysterical green haired man. “Jack!”

“Oh man! I didn't think I'd scare ya that much!” He was still laughing, one hand on his stomach and the other pressed against the blue siding on the shop.

“Why did you need to scare me at all?” Mark couldn't help but grin back as he tried to mentally calm his racing heart down. At least now he could blame the rapid thumping of his chest on being scared and not some embarrassing ‘Jack looks nice in blue’ reason.

Jack really did look nice and not just because of his thick blue zip up hoodie. He just looked nice, a little red in the cheeks from the late autumn breeze and all cozied up in a black beanie with matching cotton gloves. 

“I'm sorry, you were just so zoned out I couldn't resit!” Mark had sort of forgot just how much he liked that accent and it was making it really difficult to stay irritated. 

“Sure, sure” was all Mark managed, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. 

“You look really good.” Jack told him with a grin, obviously trying to earn a few forgiveness points. Despite himself, Mark's own grin spread across his face. He glanced down at his attire glad the hour of self loathing had paid off. He'd ended up in a extra thick red flannel, unbuttoned to reveal a plain black shirt that matched his own knit hat and charcoal jeans. 

“Thanks, you look fantastic yourself.” Jack smile grew shy, his check color deepening. 

“Oh come on goof. Let's get going.” Mark took the little shove of his shoulder in stride, letting the momentum turn him in the direction of the little burger shop they'd agreed on. 

It was a good 20 minute walk from Mark's shop, but the time passed much too fast. The silliness of the texting continued on into the real conversation, this time revolving around the various jokes Jack knew about Assassin's Creed and all the dumb shit Mark had managed to do while playing it that afternoon.

“Why, thank you.” Jack said with another one of his shy smiles as Mark pulled open the red wooden door and gestured for his date to go ahead. 

“Sure thing.” Mark felt giddy, all bubbly stomach and warm cheeks. They hadn't even started the date and Mark already felt unbelievably smitten. 

They were sat down quickly in a little black and red booth by a dinky frosted glass window. After scribbling down a ice tea for Mark and water with lemon for Jack, the disintrested teenage hostess left them alone.

“I'm surprised I've never made it over to this place.” Jack commented as he glanced around the hole in the wall joint they sat in. The rustic brick walls mixed with the exposed pipes and ventilation hanging above them gave the place a nice charm.

“Yeah, it’s one of the usual university staples. I’d probably of met you sooner if you had, me and Wade are always here.” Mark commented, leaning his elbow on the table so he could rest his chin in his hand. 

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t have been as good a story.” Jack looked back at his date and Mark was really glad he had at least had one cheek covered. 

“Good story?”

“Yeah, come on. I asked you out using flowers you picked out for yourself. That’s pretty cute.” Jack mirrored Marks posture, a very stupid smirk on his face. 

“And super lame.” Mark managed, biting his lip to fight off any embarrassing reaction from Jack’s gaze.

“You liked it.” Grin brightening, Jack dropped his eyes and hand to pick up the menu and start looking for a suitable option. Mark didn’t argue with this statement, but he had the mind to at least shake his head. 

Mark ended up picking something for Jack and himself, when the Irishmen had gotten stuck departing the various pros and cons of bacon ranch or hickory bbq. When he bit into his burger, he glared at Mark before sighing and admitting that Mark had good taste.

“It’s not the same. Roller coasters have buckles and teams of people that make sure they are safe. A big old cliff and a good gust of wind is all it takes to toss ya right over.” Jack gestured with a ketchup dripping frenching fry, still chewing the last one. 

“You really think a little breeze can push a whole person to their death?” Eyebrow raised, Mark took a bite of his burger not really getting how Jack could rave about amusement parks one second and then shiver at Mark’s story about climbing his roof at night. 

“Mountain tops have way stronger wind than little breezes!” Ketchup hit Mark’s hand when Jack shook it to emphasis his point. Mark just glanced at it unamused before liking it off and turning back to continue the dumb argument. 

“The top of my three story building is not a mountain top, Jack.” 

“I still think laying on a steep possibly poorly shingled rooftop is not worth whatever tiny bit of better view your getting. I’m not going to feel bad when you fall and break your leg while I am sitting comfy on a lawn chair.” 

“My roof it barely a 10 degree angle, and it was reroofed like three years ago. I’ve sat up their dozens of times, I promise you won’t slide off.” Mark was smiling at how insistent Jack was about the whole thing, his eyebrows furrowed and arms flailing. 

“You just have no survival instinct.” Jack sat back, making the plastic on his booth crinkle. 

“I just think rooftop stargazing is exactly the nerdy thing we need to do, to keep the lame levels of this relationship staying where they were from the beginning.” Shrugging, Mark went back to eating his dinner. 

“Testing death is at least fifth date material, not second date.” Jack grumbled. 

“Noted. If we go out every other day I’ll get you on the roof next weekend.”

“You are going to get sick of me if we go out every other day.” Jack replied with a laugh.

“I could go out with you everyday and not get sick of you.” Mark smirked and waggled his eyebrows.

“I walked right into that line.” Jack groaned and Mark laughed. 

After finishing their food, they stayed in the restaurant for a good hour just talking about classes, jobs and video games. By the time they decided staying in their booth for more than three hours would really be overkill, the waitress looked ready to murder them.

“If she had to fill up my water one more time, I think she would have poisoned it.” Pulling his beanie down to block some of the cool air from freezing his ears, Jack laughed as they walked out.

“I know, that’s why I decided we really needed to get going.” Mark chuckled along, pushing the sleeves of his flannel down from where they were rolled at his elbows.

“If I remember correctly, you insisted it wasn’t overstaying our welcome until the four hour mark.” They walked closely, shoulders brushing each other every few steps. They street was mostly empty, the only noise coming from their footsteps or the roll of the tires from an occasional car driving past. 

“They don’t even close until midnight. We could have stayed for at least two more hours.” Shoulders bumped again and Mark startled just a bit when he felt fingers slide between his. He smiled and returned the grasp.

“It’s almost ten thirty! Where would we have spent the rest of those two hours?” Jack asked with an eyebrow raised, head tilted back to look at Mark. Something about the look and their hands and the way he could feel Jack’s body heat radiating against his arm made him forget where exactly he was going with the conversation. After looking back at Jack long enough to risk running into something, Mark looked away and waved off his dates question with his free hand. 

“We would have found somewhere.”

“As long as it wasn’t a roof top, I’m sure it would have been great.” Mark laughed. 

When they got back to the shop, Jack’s grip on his hand loosened but Mark didn’t let go. Instead he held on tighter and swung around a bit to face Jack. 

“I have something for you.” The taller man said with a grin, looking Jack in the eye for a minute before pulling keys out of his pocket and turning to unlock the front doors of his flower shop. 

“Oh yeah?” Jack asked, sounding a little too pleased. 

Mark didn’t answer, managing to unlock and slide open the door with one hand. He used the other to pull his date into the dark front room. He didn't bother to turn on the lights, the glow from the street lap just outside was enough to guide him. 

“Is it a good present?” Jack asked, happily following Mark towards the counter where they first met. 

“You’ll see.” When they reached it, Mark finally let go of Jack’s hand to slip behind and grab what he had stashed in the cabinet earlier that day. 

“Wow. It’s beautiful.” A bouquet of yellow and purple flowers flowed out of a small glass vase, all the flowers bundles plumped up and tied together in a way that seemed perfectly random. 

“I needed to get you back for the one you gave me.” Mark replied with a shy grin, rubbing the back of his neck while Jack examined every flower with a blindingly bright smile. 

“What kind of flowers are all these? I really like these reddish ones.” Jack delicately touched the edges of a deep red flower with white trim around the petals. 

“That one’s a gloxinia.” Mark leaned over the counter and began pointing at each type of flower in the bundle. “This yellow is a Ranunculus, the pink ones are peach blossoms and those little buds are yellow roses. And the really vibrant purple ones are violets.”

“And I’m sure these all have very specific meanings?” Jack was still looking at the flowers, smile bright enough that Mark almost wanted to touch it to see if it burned. 

“Yeah.” Mark nodded, feeling mixed between embarrassed and awestruck. 

“You gonna tell me them?” Finally looking away from his gift, Jack met Mark’s eyes. His face grew softer when he noticed the red on Mark’s cheeks. 

“I put a card in it of all the different flowers names so you can look it up if you're really curious. Some are a little, lame.” Mark brushed his fingers through his hair, telling himself he was the one that made the damn thing and he didn’t really have a right to get this flustered about it. 

“I see.” Jack nodded and looked back at the flowers, smirking.

“The whole thing basically just says, I really like you.” Mark managed after clearing his throat. 

“And you made this before you even went on a date with me?” Jack glanced back up, a hint of surprise in his eyes mixed with something else Mark wasn’t really sure of. 

“I had a feeling it would go well.” A shrug. 

The blindingly bright smile was back, but his time directed at Mark himself. Instead of feeling even more embarrassed by the whole situation, he felt a smile of his own growing to match. The air was calm and light and the shadows of poorly lit room felt cozy, the light from the night sky and old street lamp, warm. 

They sat like that for a while, not bothered by the silence until the moment faded on it’s own. Jack let out a small sigh and turned to glance back out the wall to wall windows of the store front. 

“I should probably head back home.” He commented after looking out at the street for a moment. 

“Yeah.” Mark replied, slow standing up from where he’d been leaning on the counter. Jack turned back around and picked up his flowers gingerly, looking them over again. 

They were slow about the walk back to the front door, taking much longer to reach it then the size of the shop warranted. Mark held the door open and got a smile for his effort. While he locked the place back up, Jack stood close to his side. 

“I could walk you home.” Mark commented when he turned around. That would at least give him a few more minutes with Jack. 

“No, it’s fine. I’m only ten minutes from here.” Still the green haired man stayed standing in place, flowers held tight to his chest. Their eyes stayed on each other and Mark felt a little bit ashamed at how long it took him to catch on to what was suppose to happen. But Jack waited and only smirked a little bit when he saw the realization hit him. The larger man grinned and chuckled a little under his breath before leaning forward. 

The kiss was simple and short and exactly everything Mark hoped it would be. It wasn’t so much fireworks or sudden realizations as it was just an overwhelming feeling of warmth.

Mark pulled away a tiny bit before leaning in and taking another and then another. They were all as sweet, but a bit longer than the first. After ten or so more, Jack started giggling and pulled back, eyes opening to a laughing Mark. 

“Okay okay, I get it. You like me. Save some for the next date you doofus.” They both chuckled some more, sighing lightly when the laughter faded.

“I had a good time.” Mark said softly. 

“Me too.” Another pause, just as warm as the ones before.

“One more for the road.” Leaning back down, Mark placed his lips against Jack’s, letting the warmth seep into him slowly as their lips slotted together like puzzle pieces. They moved against each other slowly, in no rush, not trying to take it any further than lips against lips. 

When Mark pulled away this time, he leaned far enough back to stop himself from just going right back in. Jack’s face was open and soft, looking a Mark in a way that he really could get used to. 

“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you very soon.” Another second of smiling at each other and Jack turned to walk around Mark and towards the crosswalk a few feet up. Mark turned and watched him go, smiling when the other man turned to wave when he reached the other side of the road. 

He stood and watched, even after Jack’s frame disappeared behind a building. A lightness had dug itself a little home in Mark’s chest and it really took all of him to turn away from the dark street.

A smile stayed plastered on his face long after he made his way up to the door and only brightened later when he got a text from Jack letting him know the other man made it home safe.

**Author's Note:**

> BLEEEEE, THEY ARE NERDS@!!!DSNKLD. Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought >.


End file.
